Circuit-controlling finger for electrically-operated music-playing apparatus.



W. C. REED.

CIRCUIT CONTROLLING FINGER FOR ELECTRICALLY OPERATED MUSIC PLAYING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 4, 1912.

1,1 12,658. Patented Oct. '6, 1914.

Man? 07".-

2 agmhxwlli,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER C. REED, 0F DALTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIG-NOR TO THE TELELECTRIC COMPANY, OF PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, A GOR-PGRATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

CIRCUIT-CONTROLLING FINGER FDR ELECTRICALLY-UPERATED MUSIC-PLAYING APPARATUS.

" Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 6, 1914.

Application filed November 4, 1912. Serial No. 729,253.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WALTER C. REED, a citizen of theUni'ted States, residing at Dalton, in the county of Berkshire and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Circuit-Controlling Fingers for Electrically-Operated Music-Playing Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

' This inyention relates to those parts of electrically operated playing apparatus for ianos and analogous musical instruments which coo erate with a perforated music sheet to cj l dse the circuits through playin magnets according to the notes to be playe and is applicable more particularly to circuit-controll'ing devices of the general character shown and described in U. S. Letters Patent No. 753,899, granted March 1,19%, onthe application of Powers and Jewell, in .yvhich the circuit through each playing magnet includes 'a metallic wire which is normally held out of contact with a metallic contact bar by means of a pivotally-mounted suppor-ted by theinusic sheet but ar- "ranged to drop through each perforation therein which passes beneath it, thereby closing the corresponding circuit at the contact bar' during intervals determined'by the len 11 of the p forations '56 present invention is intended to improve upon prioifjforms of the pivotallymounted circuit-controlling finger above refeii'red to in certain ifspects which will herei r appear, is illustrated in the ac 9 m ay g ra n in hi Figure 1 is a s ide yiew, parltly in elevation and partly in section, of a circuit-controlling mechanism embodying my improvements as preferably eonstructed;Fig. '2 is a top vplan viewo f the ivotally-mounted finger shown inFi g. 1; Fig. 3 is an end view of the sa neias viewed from the right hand end of teeming to Figthe wing 2 dicates a' portion of a perforated music sheet of the usual character, 3 indicates one of the perforations therein, and {l indicates the sup- ,P IF (Wer which the music sheet passes. My improved circuitwcontrolling' finger, which is typical of the series of like fingers employed in acompleteapparatus', is shown at 5 and is pii otally -mounte'd at one end'o n a fiiged rod 6 6 11 t l th -fi ger 'Ai t o r end the finger 5 is provided with the usual insulating block 7, and between its ends'it has a downwardly-projectin point 8 which controls the position of the finger by resting upon the imperforate portions of the music sheet 2 as the latter passes beneath it, the finger being thus supported in elevated position except at the times when a perforation such as 3 passes beneath the point 8, whereupon the finger drops slightly as said point moves downward through the perforation into the usual groove 9 provided in the support 4-. This movement completes the circuit through the corresponding playing magnet by means of the wire 10, one end of which is located in a recess in the insulating block 7 while at its other end it is connected to a fixed support 11 in such position that betweenits ends it passes over and adjacent to the usual contact bar 12, atits point of contact with which the playing magnet circuit is opened and closed.

As described thus far the parts are similar to those commonly employed in'pl'aying apparatus of this character, but in prior'constructions the fingers have been provided with perforations to receive the rod on which theyare pivotally mounted, and hence in order to remove any bent, broke'n or worn out finger and replace it by another finger it has been necessary to remove thisrod from its supports and from all the fingers as well. This results in disassembling the entire series of fingers, inasmuch as they merely receii'e the contact wires loosely and are held in place by the rod only, and much time and trouble are'involved in restoring the part's to their normal positions, Arccording to my present invention this disadvantage is obviated by providing the pivotally-inountedend of the finger 5 with a slot 13 having at its inner end a circular periphery such' as will form a bearing for the finger upon the rod 6, said slot extending upward and also slanting somewhat forward, or in the direction of movement of the music sheet 2, which is indicated by the arrow inFig. 1. By this arrangement of the slot both the drag exerted on the finger 5 by the music sheet'beneath it and the tendency to upward movement of the pivotally-mounted end of finger, due to the action of finger asa leveru'nder the downward pressure of "the' wirelO with the point 8 serving as fulcrum,

cause the bearing at the end of the slot to press against the rod 6, and hence in operation the finger has no tendency to become disengaged from said rod 6, but on the contrary is kept in close contact therewith and its pivotal axis is maintained invariable. r'is another or additional means for preventing accidental displacement of the finger the slot 13 may be so shaped that at some point between its inner and outer ends it has a width very slightly less (preferably about .003 of an inch less) than the diameter of said rod 6. The finger can be readily removed and replaced, however, without re 5 moving the rod 6 or disturbing an of the other fingers in any respect, by pressing the slot-ted end of the finger downward and backward until its slot is free from said rod, the terminal portion 14 of the finger being sufiiciently elastic to permit the rod to pass through the slightly contracted portion of the slot.

Another feature of my invention resides in the formation of the front edge 15 of the point 8 at such an angle with respect to the direction of movement of the music sheet beneath it that when the front end of a perforation 3 reaches the tip of the point 8 said point will not drop freely through the perforation, as heretofore, but its inclined front edge 15 will slide down the music sheet at the front end of the perforation until the wire 10 makes contact with the bar 12. The result of this arrangement is to lessen the noise made by the falling of said wire 10 upon the contact bar, and since a number of these wires frequently fall at one time, by reason of the striking of chords, the noise made by the collective wires is very materially re duced. Moreover, when the wires such as 10 are allowed to drop freely upon the contact bar they frequently rebound and chatter, not only adding thereby to the noise produced but also impairing the firmness of the contact which should be made between the wires and the contact bar, and this objection also is avoided by my improvement.

It will be understood that the slant of the front edge of the point 8 is so calculated 0 with reference to the normal speed of the music sheet that the downward movement of the finger 5 will not be retarded sufficiently to materially interfere with the time values of the perforations 3, and although this peculiar formation of the point 8 must necessarily delay slightly the contact at the bar 2, if it is to perform its intended function, the delay thus caused need not exceed a negligible fraction of a second or have any more harmful effect than results from chattering at the contact bar, as such chattering itself delays the establishment of the full current strength in the playing magnet circuit. 1 Inasmuch as the angle of the front edge of the point 8 is calculated to accord with the normal speed of the music sheet, it will be evident that when the speed of the sheet is varied to change the tempo of a composition, the downward movement of the finger 5 will be retarded to an increased extent if the speed of the music sheet is lessened and will be accelerated as the speed of the music sheet is increased, and the speed may conceivably be increased until the front end of perforation 3 will move away from the point 8 so fast that the sliding contact between said point and the music sheet will be broken. In such case, however, the finger 5 will merely drop freely and operate like prior fingers of this type, whereas if the speed of the music sheet is reduced the delayed doi nward movement of the finger will not be important, because the time values of perforations will be increased to a much greater extent than the delay in the donward movement of the finger.

An incidental advantage gained by shapin the point 3 as above described is found in the fact that a blunt-er angle may be formed at the tip of the point than is permissible in prior fingers, and hence less trouble is experienced on account of breakage of these points when they are hardened, it being the practice to give the points an extreme degree of'hardness in order that their sharp tips may not be worn down by long-continued use. It should also be mentioned that my improved contact finger is particularly adapted for use with music sheets made of sheet metal, since the abovedescribed operation of the point 8 requires its slanted front edge to be firmly supported by the material of which the music sheet is made.

The circuit-controlling finger illustrated in the accompanying drawing has its pivotal axis located substantially in a straightline coinciding with the direction of movement of the music sheet where the latter passes the lower extremity of the point 8, but this feature is not claimed herein, being described and claimed in a co-pending application filed June 3, 1911, Serial No. 631,053.

I claim as my invention:

' 1. A circuit-controlling finger for electrically-operated music playing apparatus, said finger having a projection terminating in a point for controlling the movements of the finger, and a slot extending inward from one edge of the finger and terminating within the latter in a pivotal bearing to receive a supporting rod.

2. A circuit-controlling finger for electrically-operated music playing apparatus, said finger having a projection terminating in. a point for controlling the movements of th finger, and a slot extending inward from one edge of the finger and terminating within the latter in a pivotal bearing to receive a supporting rod, said slot having a slightly contracted portion between the bearing and the open end of the slot.

3. A circuit-controlling mechanism for electrically-operated music playing apparatus, comprising a finger having a projection terminating in a point for controlling the movements of the finger, said finger being provided With a pivotal bearing adapted to receive a transversely-extending rod and with a slot leading from said bearing to one edge of the finger, and a make-and-break device controlled by said finger.

4. A circuitcontrolling mechanism for electrically-operated music playing apparatus, comprising a contact bar, a contact wire extending across the same, adjacent thereto, a supporting rod, and a finger pivotally mounted at one end upon said rod and connected at its other end to the contact wire, said finger being provided with a projection terminating in a point for controlling the movements of the finger and with a slot leading from said rod to one edge of the finger.

5. A circuit-controlling mechanism for electrically-operated music playing apparatus, comprising a pivotally-mounted finger having a point adapted to rest upon a music sheet and pass through perforations therein, the front edge of said point being formed at such an angle with respect to the directions of movement of the finger and the music sheet as to cause the point to slide down the sheet at the front end of a perforation, and a make-and-break device operated by the pivotal movements of the finger.

6. A circuit-controlling mechanism for electrically-operated music playing apparatus, comprising a contact bar, a contact wire extending across the same, adjacent thereto, and a pivotally-mounted finger controlling the movements of said contact wire and provided with a point ada ted to rest upon a music sheet and pass tirough perforations therein, the front edge of said point being formed at such an angle with respect to the directions of movement of the finger and the music sheet as to cause the point to slide down the sheetat the front end of a perforation.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this first day of November, 1912.

VALTER C. REED. Vitnesses:

E. D. CHADWIOK, MARY A. OBRIEN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for in cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. c." 

